The New Zealand beef and lamb industry is at risk of being an insignificant player in the country's economic recovery if it does not adopt a more integrated approach, ANZ Bank said.

The bank - New Zealand's biggest rural lender - said the outlook for "soft" commodities, such as meat, was improving.

"Businesses which develop New Zealand primary production into desirable products are the new stars of the economy," Graham Turley, ANZ's managing director commercial and agri, said.

"Among all this, beef and lamb - the red meat sector - is stuck in its ways and won't benefit unless bold action is taken,'' Turley said in notes to an address to the Red Meat Sector conference, which starts on Sunday. He noted the importance of beef and lamb to the New Zealand economy.

"But the fractured nature of the industry, with its poor planning, means it's now at risk of missing out in the country's economic recovery," Turley said.

Turley said the dairy industry had done well in recent years as a result of investment across the whole supply chain and said the red meat sector needed similar attention.

The conference is jointly hosted by the Meat Industry Association of New Zealand Inc and Beef and Lamb New Zealand.

Turley said that among the key challenges for the industry were reversing the trend of decreasing supply of lambs, lowering production costs, and increasing profit.

"This will require reinvestment across the whole industry, integration of the supply chain so farmers are rewarded for supply of the right product at the right time.

"It's crucial that farmers make a commitment to the supply chain so that the marketers and processors can invest in efficient processing and new markets with confidence to enable higher returns," Turley said.

The conference is jointly hosted by the Meat Industry Association of New Zealand Inc and Beef and Lamb New Zealand.